CardMarketing 2.0

The way that companies market their products and services will need to change radically if they are to remain relevant in the digital era, according to recent research published by Gartner. In an online world, says Gartner, traditional ways of selling to customers, based on demographic information, will become irrelevant.

Instead, companies will have to adapt to the needs of 'Generation Virtual', or 'Generation V'. Traditional segmentation strategies, namely age, gender, social demographic and geography, will become a thing of the past as our virtual personas take over and our behaviour, attitudes and interests 'blend togetether in an online environment' (some have predicted that 80% of us will have an online persona, or avatar by 2011).

"Conventional wisdom has focused on customer identification as the foundation for one-to-one marketing campaigns," said Adam Sarner, principal analyst at Gartner. "The reality of Generation V creating anonymous online personas, and the sheer power of their growing influence in an online environment, means companies must change their methods of acquisition and relationship building."

Sarner continued: "CRM-focused companies and particularly their marketing departments must take notice of this change and engage with online personas... Going forward, customers' true identities will have less importance, and instead companies will need to understand the role or persona that customers are playing at any given time and treat them accordingly."

Hmmm, not sure what to think of all this. To say that customers' true identities will be of less importance in the digital era is a statement of quite some sociological import — I'm just not sure that people's identities, as Gartner appears to be suggesting, will dilute and 'blend' quite so readily online. But it's useful to see how some see the future panning out — even if, at a deeper level, slightly unnerving....

What I do agree with, and this is something that's being written about quite a lot at the moment, is that companies can learn a lot more about what people think of their products and services by surveying them online — in their virtual or social networking worlds. Nobody likes to be cornered by someone in the street and asked to take part in a survey, and if they do take part then they're less likely to really speak their minds.

Of course, within your own social network or a virtual world, you're either anonymous or in an environment where you feel secure so you're much more likely to speak your mind — say it as it is. Maybe marketers need to go online to find those deeper insights into consumer behaviour, preferences and demands.